Titanium-testicled skydiver Felix Baumgartner is poised to make his attempt on the world's highest free-fall record.
The Austrian - who described himself as "like a tiger in a cage waiting to get out" - was due to leap from his Red Bull Stratos space capsule today at a planned altitude of 36,576m (120,000ft) over the New Mexico …

Re: Bum gardener.....hee hee hee hee

Speed of sound

Interesting: I was going to complain that the speed of sound is very different at that altitude, but apparently not really. Wikipedia says that because sound goes faster in low density and slower in low pressure, the only real difference comes with temperature, and so the lowest speed of sound he should encounter is about 270 m/s.

Shirly a crap energy drinks maker

would sponsor me to put on a suitable suit with some sort of heat shield and then take a step out of the ISS. 370,000m freefall has to be the best! Haven't fallen out of a plane since the eighties and I would have to shed quite a lot of lard but it would be worth it!

Bailout from orbit (was 'crap energy drinks maker')

Actually, in the early '60s, during the development of the DynaSoar program, there was quite a lot of R&D work done on bailout-from-orbit rescue systems. Probably the best-known was General Electric's "MOOSE" system:

Pulling a ripcord would fill an inflatable heat shield with polyurethane. The astronaut would use a small hand-held gas to orient himself for retro-fire, and then fire a solid rocket motor strapped to his chest to return to earth.

The MOOSE consisted of a chest-mounted parachute, a flexible, folded 1.8 m diameter elastomeric heat shield, and a canister of polyurethane foam. Pulling the deployment cord would fill the shield into shape and encase the back of the astronaut in perfectly form-fitting polyurethane. The astronaut would use a small hand-held gas get device to orient himself for retro-fire, and then fire a solid rocket motor mounted in the device. After aligning himself for re-entry and putting the MOOSE into a slow roll, he would throw the gas gun away. After a ballistic re-entry, the astronaut would pull the ripcord of the chest-parachute, which would pull him away from the heat shield for a parachute landing.

There was also the choice of staying with the shield for a landing on land or water./ The buoyant polyurethane crushable structure would absorb the landing shock, and encased in the foam was a survival kit, SOFAR bomb, radar chaff, altitude flare, and food and water...